History

Brick Using for House Construction - Kerala, India

The Roman Basilica Aula Palatina in Trier, Germany, built with fired bricks in the 4th century as an audience hall for Constantine I

Middle East

The earliest bricks were dried brick, meaning they were formed from clay-bearing earth or mud and dried (usually in the sun) until they were strong enough for use. The oldest discovered bricks, originally made from shaped mud and dating before 7500 BC, were found at Tell Aswad, in the upper Tigris region and in southeast Anatolia close to Diyarbakir.^[2] Other more recent findings, dated between 7,000 and 6,395 BC, come from Jericho, Catal Hüyük, and the ancient Indus Valley cities of Buhen, Mohenjo-daro, Harappa,^[3] and Mehrgarh.^[4]

The ancient Jetavanaramaya stupa in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka is one of the largest brick structures in the world.

The world's highest brick tower of St. Martin's Church in Landshut, Germany, completed in 1500

Malbork Castle, former Ordensburg of the Teutonic Order – biggest brick castle in the world

Ceramic, or fired brick was used as early as 2900 BC in early Indus Valley cities ^[5]

China

In pre-modern China, bricks were being used from the 2nd millennium BCE at a site near Xi'an.^[6] Bricks were produced on a larger scale under the Western Zhou dynasty about 3,000 years ago, and evidence for some of the first fired bricks ever produced has been discovered in ruins dating back to the Zhou.^[7][8][9] The carpenter's manual Yingzao Fashi, published in 1103 at the time of the Song Dynasty described the brick making process and glazing techniques then in use. Using the 17th century encyclopedic text Tiangong Kaiwu, historian Timothy Brook outlined the brick production process of Ming Dynasty China:

"...the kilnmaster had to make sure that the temperature inside the kiln stayed at a level that caused the clay to shimmer with the colour of molten gold or silver. He also had to know when to quench the kiln with water so as to produce the surface glaze. To anonymous laborers fell the less skilled stages of brick production: mixing clay and water, driving oxen over the mixture to trample it into a thick paste, scooping the paste into standardized wooden frames (to produce a brick roughly 42cm long, 20cm wide, and 10cm thick), smoothing the surfaces with a wire-strung bow, removing them from the frames, printing the fronts and backs with stamps that indicated where the bricks came from and who made them, loading the kilns with fuel (likelier wood than coal), stacking the bricks in the kiln, removing them to cool while the kilns were still hot, and bundling them into pallets for transportation. It was hot, filthy work.

The brickwork of Shebeli Tower in Iran displays 12th-century craftsmanship

Europe